… "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up." His disciples replied, "Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better." Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep. So he told them plainly, "Lazarus is dead," - John 11:11-14 (NIV)

He lived a normal childhood until he turned fifteen years old and began a pattern of oversleeping, over-eating, and random mood swings. This caused him constantly to be late for school and other activities, moderate weight gain and to get in trouble with his parents and teachers. His parents knew this was not their child's normal behavior, because he had always been active, respectful and on time to everything. So his parents' initial question to him was if he was doing drugs, and of course the answer was "no." Then their assumption was maybe teens just go through these phases, and eventually he will grow out of it. Therefore, all the while, they still encouraged him to wake up on time, stay active and eat healthier meals. Then one day, his mom tried to wake him, but he did not budge, matter of fact it took her an hours worth of attempts to get him to budge. When he did awake, his demeanor was like that of a small child's and he was confused and disoriented. His mom's first thought was he lied about taking drugs and so she called the ambulance and they took him to the ER. After many tests, the doctor told the parents their son was not using drugs, but he was suffering from a neurological disorder, which is more prevalent in teenage boys called Kleine-Levin Syndrome (KLS) which is also known as Sleeping Beauty Syndrome. The doctor also tells them their son may experience these episodes throughout his life until he is in his twenties where it may leave without explanation, just as it came, and the best thing they should do for him is remain supportive and give him as much encouragement as possible. As the years of his life went on, he had KLS episodes every two months and he would sleep for a little over a week, only waking up to eat and use the bathroom. For years he had bouts of depression and often found himself focusing on his past experiences before he had this syndrome, because those were the most enjoyable moments of his life. When he got into his twenties the episodes began to taper off and at the age of twenty-four, he had his first great awakening. He is now thirty and has not had an episode in six years.

Without any explanation, Christians can sometimes spiritually fall asleep or become stagnant in their walk with the Lord, and when this happens, we can become spiritually disorientated. Spiritual disorientation is confusion in what direction we are supposed to be walking in the Lord. It can cause us to feel like we are constantly living our lives in a place of uncertainty and if we stay in this state of confusion we can eventually begin to look back on how stuff used to be and what we used to do. Then instead of living in the present, we start living in our past, where we felt like we had a purpose in this life. If we continue in this state, it is highly possible to backslide and die spiritually. Yet, we must remember that if God can make a dead man rise from his grave, he can certainly wake us up out of our spiritual stagnation and cure those who have any other kind of condition. Therefore, when we begin to find ourselves in this state, we must push harder into the things of God, even when we feel too defeated to do it and constantly encourage ourselves and our brothers and sisters in Christ when we know they are going through this, and eventually our spiritual stagnation will leave without explanation just as it came. Then, we will become spiritually activated, thus experiencing the great awakening.

Written By: Chase Sutton
www.GenuineLife.com